What do Children Need for a Happy Childhood?

Sometimes my children’s words warm my heart.

“Don’t you just love being us?” asked my daughter Imogen, turning to me with a huge smile.

I was surprised. Why did she suddenly feel like a big ball of happiness*? It wasn’t as if we were doing anything special right at that moment.

“You don’t wish you belonged to another family?” I asked.

“No! We have a good life. I've been writing. We have our singing lessons later. But before that, we’re going to the library!”

A good life? This made me think: “Will you look back on your childhood and think it was happy?”

“Oh yes!”

“What will you remember the most?”

Imogen thought for a moment and then said, “Doing things together. We’re always spending time together.”

There is so much I want to give my children. I want them to have a life full of memorable experiences but..

We never seem to go anywhere or do anything very interesting. We've only ever been on a family holiday a handful of times. We've never been overseas. We haven’t even been out of the state (unless you count going to the ACT, which is like a state within our state). On a day-to-day basis, we never go anywhere more exciting than the library. We rarely meet up with friends. Actually we all have more friends online than in real life. The last time we saw another homeschooling family was rather a long time ago.

To be honest, I haven’t enough time or money, energy or even inclination to keep up with a busy and interesting lifestyle. And I wonder if I am failing my children.

“Doing things together. We’re always spending time together.”

Maybe it’s not what we do or where we go or who we meet that’s important. Perhaps the important word is ‘together’.

We cook, we eat, we read, we write, we watch movies, we run, we talk, we laugh, we cry, we hug, we pray, we sing, we go to the library together. All simple things but done together with those we love.

Imogen’s words warm my heart: “Doing things together. We’re always spending time together.”

Perhaps children don’t need much more than that for a memorable childhood.

What do you think?

* "... a big ball of happiness..." Yesterday Sophie said, "Do you ever feel like one big ball of happiness for no apparent reason?"

"Yes!"

Do you?